Speech enabled media sharing in a multimodal application

ABSTRACT

Speech enabled media sharing in a multimodal application including parsing, by a multimodal browser, one or more markup documents of a multimodal application; identifying, by the multimodal browser, in the one or more markup documents a web resource for display in the multimodal browser; loading, by the multimodal browser, a web resource sharing grammar that includes keywords for modes of resource sharing and keywords for targets for receipt of web resources; receiving, by the multimodal browser, an utterance matching a keyword for the web resource, a keyword for a mode of resource sharing and a keyword for a target for receipt of the web resource in the web resource sharing grammar thereby identifying the web resource, a mode of resource sharing, and a target for receipt of the web resource; and sending, by the multimodal browser, the web resource to the identified target for the web resource using the identified mode of resource sharing.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The field of the invention is data processing, or, more specifically,methods, apparatus, and products for speech enabled media sharing in amultimodal application.

2. Description of Related Art

User interaction with applications running on small devices through akeyboard or stylus has become increasingly limited and cumbersome asthose devices have become increasingly smaller. In particular, smallhandheld devices like mobile phones and PDAs serve many functions andcontain sufficient processing power to support user interaction throughmultimodal access, that is, by interaction in nonvoice modes as well asvoice mode. Devices which support multimodal access combine multipleuser input modes or channels in the same interaction allowing a user tointeract with the applications on the device simultaneously throughmultiple input modes or channels. The methods of input include speechrecognition, keyboard, touch screen, stylus, mouse, handwriting, andothers. Multimodal input often makes using a small device easier.

Multimodal applications are often formed by sets of markup documentsserved up by web servers for display on multimodal browsers. A‘multimodal browser,’ as the term is used in this specification,generally means a web browser capable of receiving multimodal input andinteracting with users with multimodal output, where modes of 5 themultimodal input and output include at least a speech mode. Multimodalbrowsers typically render web pages written in XHTML+Voice (‘X+V’). X+Vprovides a markup language that enables users to interact with anmultimodal application often running on a server through spoken dialogin addition to traditional means of input such as keyboard strokes andmouse pointer action. Visual markup tells a multimodal browser what theuser interface is look like and how it is to behave when the user types,points, or clicks. Similarly, voice markup tells a multimodal browserwhat to do when the user speaks to it. For visual markup, the multimodalbrowser uses a graphics engine; for voice markup, the multimodal browseruses a speech engine. X+V adds spoken interaction to standard webcontent by integrating XHTML (eXtensible Hypertext Markup Language) andspeech recognition vocabularies supported by VoiceXML. For visualmarkup, X+V includes the XHTML standard. For voice markup, X+V includesa subset of VoiceXML. For synchronizing the VoiceXML elements withcorresponding visual interface elements, X+V uses events. XHTML includesvoice modules that support speech synthesis, speech dialogs, command andcontrol, and speech grammars. Voice handlers can be attached to XHTMLelements and respond to specific events. Voice interaction features areintegrated with XHTML and can consequently be used directly within XHTMLcontent. In addition to X+V, multimodal applications also may beimplemented with Speech Application Tags (‘SALT’). SALT is a markuplanguage developed by the Salt Forum. Both X+V and SALT are markuplanguages for creating applications that use voice input/speechrecognition and voice output/speech synthesis. Both SALT applicationsand X+V applications use underlying speech recognition and synthesistechnologies or ‘speech engines’ to do the work of recognizing andgenerating human speech. As markup languages, both X+V and SALT providemarkup-based programming environments for using speech engines in anapplication's user interface. Both languages have language elements,markup tags, that specify what the speech-recognition engine shouldlisten for and what the synthesis engine should ‘say.’ Whereas X+Vcombines XHTML, VoiceXML, and the XML Events standard to createmultimodal applications, SALT does not provide a standard visual markuplanguage or eventing model. Rather, it is a low-level set of tags forspecifying voice interaction that can be embedded into otherenvironments. In addition to X+V and SALT, multimodal applications maybe implemented in Java with a Java speech framework, in C++, forexample, and with other technologies and in other environments as well.

Currently multimodal application may be used to drive the execution ofmedia content. Often the display of a multimodal application will revealmedia content that may be shared by a user with another user. Usingphysical interaction a an input device to send a link to the mediacontent or copy the content and send it to another user may becumbersome.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Speech enabled media sharing in a multimodal application includingparsing, by a multimodal browser, one or more markup documents of amultimodal application; identifying, by the multimodal browser, in theone or more markup documents a web resource for display in themultimodal browser; loading, by the multimodal browser, a web resourcesharing grammar that includes keywords for modes of resource sharing andkeywords for targets for receipt of web resources; receiving, by themultimodal browser, an utterance matching a keyword for the webresource, a keyword for a mode of resource sharing and a keyword for atarget for receipt of the web resource in the web resource sharinggrammar thereby identifying the web resource, a mode of resourcesharing, and a target for receipt of the web resource; and sending, bythe multimodal browser, the web resource to the identified target forthe web resource using the identified mode of resource sharing.

The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of theinvention will be apparent from the following more particulardescriptions of exemplary embodiments of the invention as illustrated inthe accompanying drawings wherein like reference numbers generallyrepresent like parts of exemplary embodiments of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 sets forth a network diagram illustrating an exemplary system forimproving speech capabilities of a multimodal application in amultimodal application according to embodiments of the present invention

FIG. 2 sets forth a block diagram of automated computing machinerycomprising an example of a computer useful as a voice server inimproving speech capabilities of a multimodal application according toembodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 3 sets forth a functional block diagram of exemplary apparatus forimproving speech capabilities of a multimodal application in a thinclient architecture according to embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 4 sets forth a block diagram of automated computing machinerycomprising an example of a computer useful as a multimodal device inimproving speech capabilities of a multimodal application according toembodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 5 sets forth a flow chart illustrating an exemplary method ofspeech enabled media sharing in a multimodal application.

FIG. 6 sets forth a flow chart illustrating another method of speechenabled media sharing in a multimodal application according toembodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 7 sets forth a flow chart illustrating another method of speechenabled media sharing in a multimodal application according toembodiments of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENT(S)

Exemplary methods, apparatus, and products for speech enabled mediasharing in a multimodal application are described with reference to theaccompanying drawings, beginning with FIG. 1. FIG. 1 sets forth anetwork diagram illustrating an exemplary system for speech enabledmedia sharing in a multimodal application according to embodiments ofthe present invention. Speech enabled media sharing in a multimodalapplication in this example is implemented with a multimodal browser(196) that supports a multimodal application (195). The multimodalbrowser supports a speech engine (148) operating on a multimodal device(152) or a speech engine (153) residing on a voice server (151). Thesystem of FIG. 1 includes at least one speech recognition grammar (104)that specifies words and phrases to be recognized by an automatic speechrecognition (‘ASR’) engine (150) of a speech engine (148, 153). Themultimodal device (152) supports multiple modes of user interaction withthe multimodal application including a voice mode and one or morenon-voice modes of user interaction with the multimodal application. Thevoice mode is represented here with audio output of voice prompts andresponses (177) from the multimodal devices and audio input of speechfor recognition (315) from a user (128). Non-voice modes are representedby input/output devices such as keyboards and display screens on themultimodal devices (152). The multimodal application is operativelycoupled (195) to an ASR engine (150) in a speech engine (148). Theoperative coupling may be implemented with an application programminginterface (‘API’), a voice service module, or a VOIP connection asexplained more detail below.

The system of FIG. 1 operates generally to carry out speech enabledmedia sharing in a multimodal application by parsing, by the multimodalbrowser (196), one or more markup documents of a multimodal application(195); identifying, by the multimodal browser (196), in the one or moremarkup documents a web resource for display in the multimodal browser(196); loading, by the multimodal browser (196), a web resource sharinggrammar (510) that includes keywords (512) for modes of resource sharingand keywords for targets (514) for receipt of web resources; receiving,by the multimodal browser (196), an utterance matching a keyword for theweb resource, a keyword for a mode of resource sharing and a keyword fora target for receipt of the web resource in the web resource sharinggrammar thereby identifying the web resource, a mode of resourcesharing, and a target for receipt of the web resource; and sending, bythe multimodal browser (196), the web resource to the identified targetfor the web resource using the identified mode of resource sharing.

A web resource is content available for sharing through a wide areanetwork, such as for example, the Internet. Such a web resource mayinclude a media file in a multimodal application capable of being sentas an email attachment to another user, a hyperlink to a web pagecapable of being sent as a text message, or any other content that willoccur to those of skill in the art. A mode of resource sharing is amethod for data communications. Examples of modes of resource sharinginclude email, text messaging, short message service (‘SMS’), multimediamessage service (‘MMS’) and so on as will occur those of skill in theart.

A multimodal device is an automated device, that is, automated computingmachinery or a computer program running on an automated device, that iscapable of accepting from users more than one mode of input, keyboard,mouse, stylus, and so on, including speech input—and also displayingmore than one mode of output, graphic, speech, and so on. A multimodaldevice is generally capable of accepting speech input from a user,digitizing the speech, and providing digitized speech to a speech enginefor recognition. A multimodal device may be implemented, for example, asa voice-enabled browser on a laptop, a voice browser on a telephonehandset, an online game implemented with Java on a personal computer,and with other combinations of hardware and software as may occur tothose of skill in the art. Because multimodal applications may beimplemented in markup languages (X+V, SALT), object-oriented languages(Java, C++), procedural languages (the C programming language), and inother kinds of computer languages as may occur to those of skill in theart, this specification uses the term ‘multimodal application’ to referto any software application, server-oriented or client-oriented, thinclient or thick client, that administers more than one mode of input andmore than one mode of output, typically including visual and speechmodes.

The system of FIG. 1 includes several example multimodal devices: [0022]personal computer (107) which is coupled for data communications to datacommunications network (100) through wireline connection (120), [0023]personal digital assistant (‘PDA’) (112) which is coupled for datacommunications to data communications network (100) through wirelessconnection (114), [0024] mobile telephone (110) which is coupled fordata communications to data communications network (100) throughwireless connection (116), and [0025] laptop computer (126) which iscoupled for data communications to data communications network (100)through wireless connection (118).

Each of the example multimodal devices (152) in the system of FIG. 1includes a microphone, an audio amplifier, a digital-to-analogconverter, a multimodal browser, and a multimodal application capable ofaccepting from a user (128) speech for recognition (315), digitizing thespeech, and providing the digitized speech to a speech engine forrecognition. The speech may be digitized according to industry standardcodecs, including but not limited to those used for Distributed SpeechRecognition as such. Methods for ‘COding/DECoding’ speech are referredto as ‘codecs.’ The European Telecommunications Standards Institute(‘ETSI’) provides several codecs for encoding speech for use in DSR,including, for example, the ETSI ES 201 108 DSR Front-end Codec, theETSI ES 202 050 Advanced DSR Front-end Codec, the ETSI ES 202 211Extended DSR Front-end Codec, and the ETSI ES 202 212 Extended AdvancedDSR Front-end Codec. In standards such as RFC3557 entitled [0027] RTPPayload Format for European Telecommunications Standards Institute(ETSI) European Standard ES 201 108 Distributed Speech RecognitionEncoding and the Internet Draft entitled [0028] RTP Payload Formats forEuropean Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) European StandardES 202 050, ES 202 211, and ES 202 212 Distributed Speech RecognitionEncoding, the IETF provides standard RTP payload formats for variouscodecs. It is useful to note, therefore, that there is no limitation inthe present invention regarding codecs, payload formats, or packetstructures. Multimodal applications according to embodiments of thepresent invention may implement any codec, including, for example:[0029] AMR (Adaptive Multi-Rate Speech coder) [0030] ARDOR (AdaptiveRate-Distortion Optimized sound codeR), [0031] Dolby Digital (A/52,AC3), [0032] DTS (DTS Coherent Acoustics), [0033] MP1 (MPEG audiolayer-1), [0034] MP2 (MPEG audio layer-2) Layer 2 audio codec (MPEG-1,MPEG-2 and non-ISO MPEG-2.5), [0035] MP3 (MPEG audio layer-3) Layer 3audio codec (MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and non-ISO MPEG-2.5), [0036] PerceptualAudio Coding, [0037] FS-1015 (LPC-10), [0038] FS-1016 (CELP), [0039]G.726 (ADPCM), [0040] G.728 (LD-CELP), [0041] G.729 (CS-ACELP), [0042]GSM, [0043] HILN (MPEG-4 Parametric audio coding), and [0044] others asmay occur to those of skill in the art.

As mentioned, a multimodal device according to embodiments of thepresent invention is capable of providing speech to a speech engine forrecognition. A speech engine is a functional module, typically asoftware module, although it may include specialized hardware also, thatdoes the work of recognizing and generating or ‘synthesizing’ humanspeech. The speech engine implements speech recognition by use of afurther module referred to in this specification as a ASR engine, andthe speech engine carries out speech synthesis by use of a furthermodule referred to in this specification as a text-to-speech (‘TTS’)engine. As shown in FIG. 1, a speech engine (148) may be installedlocally in the multimodal device (107) itself, or a speech engine (153)may be installed remotely with respect to the multimodal device, acrossa data communications network (100) in a voice server (151). Amultimodal device that itself contains its own speech engine is said toimplement a ‘thick multimodal client’ or ‘thick client,’ because thethick multimodal client device itself contains all the functionalityneeded to carry out speech recognition and speech synthesis—through APIcalls to speech recognition and speech synthesis modules in themultimodal device itself with no need to send requests for speechrecognition across a network and no need to receive synthesized speechacross a network from a remote voice server. A multimodal device thatdoes not contain its own speech engine is said to implement a ‘thinmultimodal client’ or simply a ‘thin client,’ because the thinmultimodal client itself contains only a relatively thin layer ofmultimodal application software that obtains speech recognition andspeech synthesis services from a voice server located remotely across anetwork from the thin client. For ease of explanation, only one (107) ofthe multimodal devices (152) in the system of FIG. 1 is shown with aspeech engine (148), but readers will recognize that any multimodaldevice may have a speech engine according to embodiments of the presentinvention.

A multimodal application (195) in this example runs in a multimodalbrowser (196). The multimodal client application (195) may include a setor sequence of X+V or SALT documents that execute on the multimodalbrowser (196). The multimodal browser (196) of FIG. 1 supports theexecution of a media player (322) through voice modes and non-voicemodes. A media player is automated computing machinery for managing andadministering media content in media files such as audio files and videofiles. Examples of media players that may be modified for use inaccordance with the present invention include Music Match™, iTunes®,Songbird™, and others as will occur to those of skill in the art.

A multimodal application (195) in this example running in a multimodalbrowser (196) provides speech for recognition and text for speechsynthesis to a speech engine through a VoiceXML interpreter (149, 155).A VoiceXML interpreter is a software module of computer programinstructions that accepts voice dialog instructions from a multimodalapplication, typically in the form of a VoiceXML <form> element. Thevoice dialog instructions include one or more grammars, data inputelements, event handlers, and so on, that advise the VoiceXMLinterpreter how to administer voice input from a user and voice promptsand responses to be presented to a user. The VoiceXML interpreteradministers such dialogs by processing the dialog instructionssequentially in accordance with a VoiceXML Form Interpretation Algorithm(‘FIA’).

A Form Interpretation Algorithm (‘FIA’) drives the interaction betweenthe user and a multimodal application. The FIA is generally responsiblefor selecting and playing one or more speech prompts, collecting a userinput, either a response that fills in one or more input items, or athrowing of some event, and interpreting actions that pertained to thenewly filled in input items. The FIA also handles multimodal applicationinitialization, grammar activation and deactivation, entering andleaving forms with matching utterances and many other tasks. The FIAalso maintains an internal prompt counter that is increased with eachattempt to provoke a response from a user. That is, with each failedattempt to prompt a matching speech response from a user an internalprompt counter is incremented.

As shown in FIG. 1, a VoiceXML interpreter (149) may be installedlocally in the multimodal device (107) itself, or a VoiceXML interpreter(155) may be installed remotely with respect to the multimodal device,across a data communications network (100) in a voice server (151). In athick client architecture, a multimodal device (152) includes both itsown speech engine (148) and its own VoiceXML interpreter (149). TheVoiceXML interpreter (149) exposes an API to the multimodal application(195) for use in providing speech recognition and speech synthesis forthe multimodal application. The multimodal application provides dialoginstructions, VoiceXML <form> elements, grammars, input elements, eventhandlers, and so on, through the API to the VoiceXML interpreter, andthe VoiceXML interpreter administers the speech engine on behalf of themultimodal application. In the thick client architecture, VoiceXMLdialogs are interpreted by a VoiceXML interpreter on the multimodaldevice. In the thin client architecture, VoiceXML dialogs areinterpreted by a VoiceXML interpreter on a voice server (151) locatedremotely across a data communications network (100) from the multimodaldevice running the multimodal application (195).

The VoiceXML interpreter provides grammars, speech for recognition, andtext prompts for speech synthesis to the speech engine, and the VoiceXMLinterpreter returns to the multimodal application speech engine outputin the form of recognized speech, semantic interpretation results, anddigitized speech for voice prompts. In a thin client architecture, theVoiceXML interpreter (155) is located remotely from the multimodalclient device in a voice server (151), the API for the VoiceXMLinterpreter is still implemented in the multimodal device, with the APImodified to communicate voice dialog instructions, speech forrecognition, and text and voice prompts to and from the VoiceXMLinterpreter on the voice server. For ease of explanation, only one (107)of the multimodal devices (152) in the system of FIG. 1 is shown with aVoiceXML interpreter (149), but readers will recognize that anymultimodal device may have a VoiceXML interpreter according toembodiments of the present invention. Each of the example multimodaldevices (152) in the system of FIG. 1 may be configured to carry outspeech enabled media sharing in a multimodal application according tothe present invention. The use of these four example multimodal devices(152) is for explanation only, not for limitation of the invention. Anyautomated computing machinery capable of accepting speech from a user,providing the speech digitized to an ASR engine through a VoiceXMLinterpreter, and receiving and playing speech prompts and responses fromthe VoiceXML interpreter may be improved to function as a multimodaldevice for improving speech capabilities of a multimodal applicationaccording to the present invention.

The system of FIG. 1 also includes a voice server (151) which isconnected to data communications network (100) through wirelineconnection (122). The voice server (151) is a computer that runs aspeech engine (153) that provides voice recognition services formultimodal devices by accepting requests for speech recognition andreturning text representing recognized speech. Voice server (151) alsoprovides speech synthesis, text to speech (‘TTS’) conversion, for voiceprompts and voice responses (314) to user input in multimodalapplications such as, for example, X+V applications, SALT applications,or Java voice applications.

The system of FIG. 1 includes a data communications network (100) thatconnects the multimodal devices (152) and the voice server (151) fordata communications. A data communications network useful for speechenabled media sharing in a multimodal application according toembodiments of the present invention is a data communications networkcomposed of a plurality of computers that function as datacommunications routers connected for data communications with packetswitching protocols. Such a data communications network may beimplemented with optical connections, wireline connections, or withwireless connections. Such a data communications network may includeintranets, internets, local area data communications networks (‘LANs’),and wide area data communications networks (‘WANs’). Such a datacommunications network may implement, for example: [0053] a link layerwith the Ethernet™ Protocol or the Wireless Ethernet™ Protocol, [0054] adata communications network layer with the Internet Protocol (‘IP’),[0055] a transport layer with the Transmission Control Protocol (‘TCP’)or the User Datagram Protocol (‘UDP’), [0056] an application layer withthe HyperText Transfer Protocol (‘HTTP’), the Session InitiationProtocol (‘SIP’), the Real Time Protocol (‘RTP’), the DistributedMultimodal Synchronization Protocol (‘DMSP’), the Wireless AccessProtocol (‘WAP’), the Handheld Device Transfer Protocol (‘HDTP’), theITU protocol known as H.323, and [0057] other protocols as will occur tothose of skill in the art.

The system of FIG. 1 includes a web server (147) connected for datacommunications through wireline connection (123) to network (100) andtherefore to the multimodal devices (152). The web server (147) may beany server that provides to client devices markup documents (892) thatcompose multimodal applications. The web server (147) typically providessuch markup documents via a data communications protocol, HTTP, HDTP,WAP, or the like. That is, although the term ‘web’ is used to describethe web server generally in this specification, there is no limitationof data communications between multimodal devices and the web server toHTTP alone. The markup documents also may be implemented in any markuplanguage that supports non-speech display elements, data entry elements,and speech elements for identifying which speech to recognize and whichwords to speak, grammars, form elements, and the like, including, forexample, X+V and SALT. A multimodal application in a multimodal devicethen, upon receiving from the web sever (147) a markup document as partof a multimodal application, may execute speech elements by use of aVoiceXML interpreter (149) and speech engine (148) in the multimodaldevice itself or by use of a VoiceXML interpreter (155) and speechengine (153) located remotely from the multimodal device in a voiceserver (151).

The arrangement of the multimodal devices (152), the web server (147),the voice server (151), and the data communications network (100) makingup the exemplary system illustrated in FIG. 1 are for explanation, notfor limitation. Data processing systems useful for speech enabled mediasharing in a multimodal application according to the present inventionmay include additional servers, routers, other devices, and peer-to-peerarchitectures, not shown in FIG. 1, as will occur to those of skill inthe art. Data communications networks in such data processing systemsmay support many data communications protocols in addition to thosenoted above. Various embodiments of the present invention may beimplemented on a variety of hardware platforms in addition to thoseillustrated in FIG. 1.

Speech enabled media sharing in a multimodal application according toembodiments of the present invention in a thin client architecture maybe implemented with one or more voice servers, computers, that is,automated computing machinery, that provide speech recognition andspeech synthesis. For further explanation, therefore, FIG. 2 sets fortha block diagram of automated computing machinery comprising an exampleof a computer useful as a voice server (151). The voice server (151) ofFIG. 2 includes at least one computer processor (156) or ‘CPU’ as wellas random access memory (168) (‘RAM’) which is connected through a highspeed memory bus (166) and bus adapter (158) to processor (156) and toother components of the voice server.

Stored in RAM (168) is a voice server application (188), a module ofcomputer program instructions capable of operating a voice server in asystem that is configured for use in speech enabled media sharing in amultimodal application according to embodiments of the presentinvention. Voice server application (188) provides voice recognitionservices for multimodal devices by accepting requests for speechrecognition and returning speech recognition results, including textrepresenting recognized speech, text for use as variable values indialogs, and text as string representations of scripts for semanticinterpretation. Voice server application (188) also includes computerprogram instructions that provide text-to-speech (‘TTS’) conversion forvoice prompts and voice responses to user input in multimodalapplications such as, for example, X+V applications, SALT applications,or Java Speech applications.

Voice server application (188) may be implemented as a web server,implemented in Java, C++, or another language, that supports X+V, SALT,VoiceXML, or other multimodal languages, by providing responses to HTTPrequests from X+V clients, SALT clients, Java Speech clients, or othermultimodal clients. Voice server application (188) may, for a furtherexample, be implemented as a Java server that runs on a Java VirtualMachine (102) and supports a Java voice framework by providing responsesto HTTP requests from Java client applications running on multimodaldevices. And voice server applications that support embodiments of thepresent invention may be implemented in other ways as may occur to thoseof skill in the art, and all such ways are well within the scope of thepresent invention.

The voice server (151) in this example includes a speech engine (153).The speech engine is a functional module, typically a software module,although it may include specialized hardware also, that does the work ofrecognizing and generating human speech. The speech engine (153)includes an automated speech recognition (‘ASR’) engine for speechrecognition and a text-to-speech (‘TTS’) engine for generating speech.The speech engine also includes a grammar (104), a lexicon (106), and alanguage-specific acoustic model (108). The language-specific acousticmodel (108) is a data structure, a table or database, for example, thatassociates SFVs with phonemes representing, to the extent that it ispractically feasible to do so, all pronunciations of all the words in ahuman language. The lexicon (106) is an association of words in textform with phonemes representing pronunciations of each word; the lexiconeffectively identifies words that are capable of recognition by an ASRengine. Also stored in RAM (168) is a Text To Speech (‘TTS’) Engine(194), a module of computer program instructions that accepts text asinput and returns the same text in the form of digitally encoded speech,for use in providing speech as prompts for and responses to users ofmultimodal systems.

The grammar (104) communicates to the ASR engine (150) the words andsequences of words that currently may be recognized. For preciseunderstanding, distinguish the purpose of the grammar and the purpose ofthe lexicon. The lexicon associates with phonemes all the words that theASR engine can recognize. The grammar communicates the words currentlyeligible for recognition. The set of words currently eligible forrecognition and the set of words capable of recognition may or may notbe the same.

Grammars may be expressed in any format supported by any ASR engine,including, for example, the Java Speech Grammar Format (‘JSGF’), theformat of the W3C Speech Recognition Grammar Specification (‘SRGS’), theAugmented Backus-Naur Format (‘ABNF’) from the IETF's RFC2234, in theform of a stochastic grammar as described in the W3C's StochasticLanguage Models (N-Gram) Specification, and in other grammar formats asmay occur to those of skill in the art. Grammars typically operate aselements of dialogs, such as, for example, a VoiceXML <menu> or an X+V<form>. A grammar's definition may be expressed in-line in a dialog. Orthe grammar may be implemented externally in a separate grammar documentand referenced from with a dialog with a URI. Here is an example of agrammar expressed in JSFG:

TABLE-US-00001<grammar scope=“dialog”><![CDATA[#JSGF V1.0; grammarcommand; <command>=[remind me to] call|phone|telephone <name><when>;<name>=bob|martha|joe|pete|chris|john|artoush; <when>=today|thisafternoon|tomorrow|next week;]]></grammar>

In this example, the elements named <command>, <name>, and <when> arerules of the grammar. Rules are a combination of a rulename and anexpansion of a rule that advises an ASR engine or a voice interpreterwhich words presently can be recognized. In this example, expansionincludes conjunction and disjunction, and the vertical bars ‘|’ mean‘or.’ An ASR engine or a voice interpreter processes the rules insequence, first <command>, then <name>, then <when>. The <command> ruleaccepts for recognition ‘call’ or ‘phone’ or ‘telephone’ plus, that is,in conjunction with, whatever is returned from the <name> rule and the<when> rule. The <name> rule accepts ‘bob’ or ‘martha’ or ‘Joe’ or‘pete’ or ‘chris’ or ‘john’ or ‘artoush’, and the <when> rule accepts‘today’ or ‘this afternoon’ or ‘tomorrow’ or ‘next week.’ The commandgrammar as a whole matches utterances like these, for example: [0067]“phone bob next week,” [0068] “telephone martha this afternoon,” [0069]“remind me to call chris tomorrow,” and [0070] “remind me to phone petetoday.”

The voice server application (188) in this example is configured toreceive, from a multimodal client located remotely across a network fromthe voice server, digitized speech for recognition from a user and passthe speech along to the ASR engine (150) for recognition. ASR engine(150) is a module of computer program instructions, also stored in RAMin this example. In carrying out automated speech recognition, the ASRengine receives speech for recognition in the form of at least onedigitized word and uses frequency components of the digitized word toderive a Speech Feature Vector (‘SFV’). An SFV may be defined, forexample, by the first twelve or thirteen Fourier or frequency domaincomponents of a sample of digitized speech. The ASR engine can use theSFV to infer phonemes for the word from the language-specific acousticmodel (108). The ASR engine then uses the phonemes to find the word inthe lexicon (106).

Also stored in RAM is a VoiceXML interpreter (192), a module of computerprogram instructions that processes VoiceXML grammars. VoiceXML input toVoiceXML interpreter (192) may originate, for example, from VoiceXMLclients running remotely on multimodal devices, from X+V clients runningremotely on multimodal devices, from SALT clients running on multimodaldevices, or from Java client applications running remotely on multimediadevices. In this example, VoiceXML interpreter (192) interprets andexecutes VoiceXML segments representing voice dialog instructionsreceived from remote multimedia devices and provided to VoiceXMLinterpreter (192) through voice server application (188).

A multimodal application (195) in a thin client architecture may providevoice dialog instructions, VoiceXML segments, VoiceXML <form> elements,and the like, to VoiceXML interpreter (149) through data communicationsacross a network with multimodal application (195). The voice dialoginstructions include one or more grammars, data input elements, eventhandlers, and so on, that advise the VoiceXML interpreter how toadminister voice input from a user and voice prompts and responses to bepresented to a user. The VoiceXML interpreter administers such dialogsby processing the dialog instructions sequentially in accordance with aVoiceXML Form Interpretation Algorithm (‘FIA’) (193). The VoiceXMLinterpreter interprets VoiceXML dialogs provided to the VoiceXMLinterpreter by a multimodal application.

As mentioned above, a Form Interpretation Algorithm (‘FIA’) drives theinteraction between the user and a multimodal application. The FIA isgenerally responsible for selecting and playing one or more speechprompts, collecting a user input, either a response that fills in one ormore input items, or a throwing of some event, and interpreting actionsthat pertained to the newly filled in input items. The FIA also handlesmultimodal application initialization, grammar activation anddeactivation, entering and leaving forms with matching utterances andmany other tasks. The FIA also maintains an internal prompt counter thatis increased with each attempt to provoke a response from a user. Thatis, with each failed attempt to prompt a matching speech response from auser an internal prompt counter is incremented.

Also stored in RAM (168) is an operating system (154). Operating systemsuseful in voice servers according to embodiments of the presentinvention include UNIX™, Linux™, Microsoft NT™, AIX™, IBM's i5/OS™, andothers as will occur to those of skill in the art. Operating system(154), voice server application (188), VoiceXML interpreter (192), ASRengine (150), JVM (102), and TTS Engine (194) in the example of FIG. 2are shown in RAM (168), but many components of such software typicallyare stored in non-volatile memory also, for example, on a disk drive(170).

Voice server (151) of FIG. 2 includes bus adapter (158), a computerhardware component that contains drive electronics for high speed buses,the front side bus (162), the video bus (164), and the memory bus (166),as well as drive electronics for the slower expansion bus (160).Examples of bus adapters useful in voice servers according toembodiments of the present invention include the Intel Northbridge, theIntel Memory Controller Hub, the Intel Southbridge, and the Intel I/OController Hub. Examples of expansion buses useful in voice serversaccording to embodiments of the present invention include IndustryStandard Architecture (‘ISA’) buses and Peripheral ComponentInterconnect (‘PCI’) buses.

Voice server (151) of FIG. 2 includes disk drive adapter (172) coupledthrough expansion bus (160) and bus adapter (158) to processor (156) andother components of the voice server (151). Disk drive adapter (172)connects non-volatile data storage to the voice server (151) in the formof disk drive (170). Disk drive adapters useful in voice servers includeIntegrated Drive Electronics (‘IDE’) adapters, Small Computer SystemInterface (‘SCSI’) adapters, and others as will occur to those of skillin the art. In addition, non-volatile computer memory may be implementedfor a voice server as an optical disk drive, electrically erasableprogrammable read-only memory (so-called ‘EEPROM’ or ‘Flash’ memory),RAM drives, and so on, as will occur to those of skill in the art.

The example voice server of FIG. 2 includes one or more input/output(‘I/O’) adapters (178). I/O adapters in voice servers implementuser-oriented input/output through, for example, software drivers andcomputer hardware for controlling output to display devices such ascomputer display screens, as well as user input from user input devices(181) such as keyboards and mice. The example voice server of FIG. 2includes a video adapter (209), which is an example of an I/O adapterspecially designed for graphic output to a display device (180) such asa display screen or computer monitor. Video adapter (209) is connectedto processor (156) through a high speed video bus (164), bus adapter(158), and the front side bus (162), which is also a high speed bus.

The exemplary voice server (151) of FIG. 2 includes a communicationsadapter (167) for data communications with other computers (182) and fordata communications with a data communications network (100). Such datacommunications may be carried out serially through RS-232 connections,through external buses such as a Universal Serial Bus (‘USB’), throughdata communications data communications networks such as IP datacommunications networks, and in other ways as will occur to those ofskill in the art. Communications adapters implement the hardware levelof data communications through which one computer sends datacommunications to another computer, directly or through a datacommunications network. Examples of communications adapters useful forembodiments of the present invention include modems for wired dial-upcommunications, Ethernet (IEEE 802.3) adapters for wired datacommunications network communications, and 802.11 adapters for wirelessdata communications network communications.

For further explanation, FIG. 3 sets forth a functional block diagram ofexemplary apparatus for speech enabled media sharing in a multimodalapplication in a thin client architecture according to embodiments ofthe present invention. The example of FIG. 3 includes a multimodaldevice (152) and a voice server (151) connected for data communicationby a VOIP connection (216) through a data communications network (100).A multimodal application (195) runs on the multimodal device (152), anda voice server application (188) runs on the voice server (151). Themultimodal client application (195) may be a set or sequence of X+V(892) or SALT documents that execute on multimodal browser (196), a Javavoice application that executes on the Java Virtual Machine (101), or amultimodal application implemented in other technologies as may occur tothose of skill in the art. The example multimodal device of FIG. 3 alsoincludes a sound card (174), which is an example of an I/O adapterspecially designed for accepting analog audio signals from a microphone(176) and converting the audio analog signals to digital form forfurther processing by a codec (183).

In addition to the multimodal sever application (188), the voice server(151) also has installed upon it a speech engine (153) with an ASRengine (150), a grammar (104), a lexicon (106), a language-specificacoustic model (108), and a TTS engine (194), as well as a JVM (102),and a Voice XML interpreter (192). VoiceXML interpreter (192) interpretsand executes VoiceXML dialog instructions received from the multimodalapplication and provided to VoiceXML interpreter (192) through voiceserver application (188). VoiceXML input to VoiceXML interpreter (192)may originate from the multimodal application (195) implemented as anX+V client running remotely on the multimodal device (152). As notedabove, the multimedia device application (195) also may be implementedas a Java client application running remotely on the multimedia device(152), a SALT application running remotely on the multimedia device(152), and in other ways as may occur to those of skill in the art.

VOIP stands for ‘Voice Over Internet Protocol,’ a generic term forrouting speech over an IP-based data communications network. The speechdata flows over a general-purpose packet-switched data communicationsnetwork, instead of traditional dedicated, circuit-switched voicetransmission lines. Protocols used to carry voice signals over the IPdata communications network are commonly referred to as ‘Voice over IP’or ‘VOIP’ protocols. VOIP traffic may be deployed on any IP datacommunications network, including data communications networks lacking aconnection to the rest of the Internet, for instance on a privatebuilding-wide local area data communications network or ‘LAN.’

Many protocols are used to effect VOIP. The two most popular types ofVOIP are effected with the IETF's Session Initiation Protocol (‘SIP’)and the ITU's protocol known as ‘H.323.’ SIP clients use TCP and UDPport 5060 to connect to SIP servers. SIP itself is used to set up andtear down calls for speech transmission. VOIP with SIP then uses RTP fortransmitting the actual encoded speech. Similarly, H.323 is an umbrellarecommendation from the standards branch of the InternationalTelecommunications Union that defines protocols to provide audio-visualcommunication sessions on any packet data communications network.

The apparatus of FIG. 3 operates in a manner that is similar to theoperation of the system of FIG. 2 described above. Multimodalapplication (195) is a user-level, multimodal, client-side computerprogram that presents a voice interface to user (128), provides audioprompts and responses (314) and accepts input speech for recognition(315). Multimodal application (195) provides a speech interface throughwhich a user may provide oral speech for recognition through microphone(176) and have the speech digitized through an audio amplifier (185) anda coder/decoder (‘codec’) (183) of a sound card (174) and provide thedigitized speech for recognition to ASR engine (150). Multimodalapplication (195) then packages the digitized speech in a recognitionrequest message according to a VOIP protocol, and transmits the speechto voice server (151) through the VOIP connection (216) on the network(100).

Voice server application (188) provides voice recognition services formultimodal devices by accepting dialog instructions, VoiceXML segments,and returning speech recognition results, including text representingrecognized speech, text for use as variable values in dialogs, andoutput from execution of semantic interpretation scripts as well asvoice prompts. Voice server application (188) includes computer programinstructions that provide text-to-speech (‘TTS’) conversion for voiceprompts and voice responses to user input in multimodal applicationssuch as, for example, X+V applications, SALT applications, or JavaSpeech applications.

The voice server application (188) receives speech for recognition froma user and passes the speech through API calls to VoiceXML interpreter(192) which in turn uses an ASR engine (150) for speech recognition. TheASR engine receives digitized speech for recognition, uses frequencycomponents of the digitized speech to derive an SFV, uses the SFV toinfer phonemes for the word from the language-specific acoustic model(108), and uses the phonemes to find the speech in the lexicon (106).The ASR engine then compares speech found as words in the lexicon towords in a grammar (104) to determine whether words or phrases in speechare recognized by the ASR engine.

A multimodal application (195), in some embodiments of the presentinvention, may run in a multimodal browser (196). The multimodal browserof FIG. 3 is capable of speech enabled media sharing in a multimodalapplication by parsing one or more markup documents of a multimodalapplication (195); identifying in the one or more markup documents a webresource for display in the multimodal browser (196); loading a webresource sharing grammar that includes keywords for modes of resourcesharing and keywords for targets for receipt of web resources; receivingan utterance matching a keyword for the web resource, a keyword for amode of resource sharing and a keyword for a target for receipt of theweb resource in the web resource sharing grammar thereby identifying theweb resource, a mode of resource sharing, and a target for receipt ofthe web resource; and sending the web resource to the identified targetfor the web resource using the identified mode of resource sharing.

The multimodal application (195) is operatively coupled to the ASRengine (150). In this example, the operative coupling between themultimodal application and the ASR engine (150) is implemented with aVOIP connection (216) through a voice services module (130), thenthrough the voice server application (188) and either JVM (102),VoiceXML interpreter (192), or SALT interpreter (103), depending onwhether the multimodal application is implemented in X+V, Java, or SALT.The voice services module (130) is a thin layer of functionality, amodule of computer program instructions, that presents an API (316) foruse by an application level program in providing dialog instructions andspeech for recognition to a voice server application (188) and receivingin response voice prompts and other responses. In this example,application level programs are represented by multimodal application(195), JVM (101), and multimodal browser (196).

The voice services module (130) provides data communications servicesthrough the VOIP connection and the voice server application (188)between the multimodal device (152) and the VoiceXML interpreter (192).The API (316) is the same API presented to applications by a VoiceXMLinterpreter when the VoiceXML interpreter is installed on the multimodaldevice in a thick client architecture (316 on FIG. 4). So from the pointof view of an application calling the API (316), the application iscalling the VoiceXML interpreter directly. The data communicationsfunctions of the voice services module (130) are transparent toapplications that call the API (316). At the application level, calls tothe API (316) may be issued from the multimodal browser (196), whichprovides an execution environment for the multimodal application (195)when the multimodal application is implemented with X+V. And calls tothe API (316) may be issued from the JVM (101), which provides anexecution environment for the multimodal application (195) when themultimodal application is implemented with Java.

Speech enabled media sharing in a multimodal application according toembodiments of the present invention in thick client architectures isgenerally implemented with multimodal devices, that is, automatedcomputing machinery or computers. In the system of FIG. 1, for example,all the multimodal devices (152) are implemented to some extent at leastas computers. For further explanation, therefore, FIG. 4 sets forth ablock diagram of automated computing machinery comprising an example ofa computer useful as a multimodal device (152) for speech enabled mediasharing in a multimodal application according to embodiments of thepresent invention. In a multimodal device implementing a thick clientarchitecture as illustrated in FIG. 4, the multimodal device (152) hasno connection to a remote voice server containing a VoiceXML interpreterand a speech engine. All the components needed for speech synthesis andvoice recognition according to embodiments of the present invention areinstalled or embedded in the multimodal device itself.

The example multimodal device (152) of FIG. 4 includes severalcomponents that are structured and operate similarly as do parallelcomponents of the voice server, having the same drawing referencenumbers, as described above with reference to FIG. 2: at least onecomputer processor (156), frontside bus (162), RAM (168), high speedmemory bus (166), bus adapter (158), video adapter (209), video bus(164), expansion bus (160), communications adapter (167), I/O adapter(178), disk drive adapter (172), an operating system (154), a JVM (102),a VoiceXML Interpreter (192), a speech engine (153), and so on. As inthe system of FIG. 4, the speech engine in the multimodal device of FIG.2 includes an ASR engine (150), a grammar (104), a lexicon (106), alanguage-dependent acoustic model (108), and a TTS engine (194). TheVoiceXML interpreter (192) administers such dialogs by processing thedialog instructions sequentially in accordance with a VoiceXML FormInterpretation Algorithm (‘FIA’) (193).

The speech engine (153) in this kind of embodiment, a thick clientarchitecture, often is implemented as an embedded module in a small formfactor device such as a handheld device, a mobile phone, PDA, and thelike. An example of an embedded speech engine useful according toembodiments of the present invention is IBM's Embedded ViaVoiceEnterprise. The example multimodal device of FIG. 4 also includes asound card (174), which is an example of an I/O adapter speciallydesigned for accepting analog audio signals from a microphone (176) andconverting the audio analog signals to digital form for furtherprocessing by a codec (183). The sound card (174) is connected toprocessor (156) through expansion bus (160), bus adapter (158), andfront side bus (162).

Also stored in RAM (168) in this example is a multimodal application(195), a module of computer program instructions capable of operating amultimodal device as an apparatus that supports embodiments of thepresent invention. The multimodal application (195) runs with amultimodal browser (196) and implements speech recognition by acceptingspeech for recognition from a user and sending the speech forrecognition through API calls to the ASR engine (150). The multimodalapplication (195) and the multimodal browser (196) implement speechsynthesis generally by sending words to be used as prompts for a user tothe TTS engine (194). As an example of thick client architecture, themultimodal application (195) in this example does not send speech forrecognition across a network to a voice server for recognition, and themultimodal application (195) in this example does not receivesynthesized speech, TTS prompts and responses, across a network from avoice server. All grammar processing, voice recognition, and text tospeech conversion in this example is performed in an embedded fashion inthe multimodal device (152) itself.

More particularly, multimodal application (195) in this example is auser-level, multimodal, client-side computer program that provides aspeech interface through which a user may provide oral speech forrecognition through microphone (176), have the speech digitized throughan audio amplifier (185) and a coder/decoder (‘codec’) (183) of a soundcard (174) and provide the digitized speech for recognition to ASRengine (150). The multimodal application (195) may be implemented as aset or sequence of X+V documents executing in a multimodal browser (196)or microbrowser that passes VoiceXML grammars and digitized speech bycalls through an API (316) directly to an embedded VoiceXML interpreter(192) for processing. The embedded VoiceXML interpreter (192) may inturn issue requests for speech recognition through API calls directly tothe embedded ASR engine (150). Multimodal application (195) also canprovide speech synthesis, TTS conversion, by API calls to the embeddedTTS engine (194) for voice prompts and voice responses to user input.

In further exemplary embodiments, the multimodal application (195) maybe implemented as a set or sequence X+V documents or SALT documentsexecuted on a multimodal browser (196) or microbrowser that issues callsthrough the VoiceXML API (316) for speech recognition and speechsynthesis services. In addition to X+V, SALT, and Java implementations,multimodal application (195) may be implemented in other technologies aswill occur to those of skill in the art, and all such implementationsare well within the scope of the present invention.

The multimodal application (195) is operatively coupled to the ASRengine (150) through an API (320). In this example, the operativecoupling between the multimodal application and the ASR engine (150) isimplemented by either JVM (102), VoiceXML interpreter (192), or SALTinterpreter (103), depending on whether the multimodal application isimplemented in X+V, Java, or SALT. When the multimodal application (195)is implemented in X+V, the operative coupling is effected through themultimodal browser (196), which provides an operating environment and aninterpreter for the X+V application, and then through the VoiceXMLinterpreter, which passes grammars and voice utterances for recognitionto the ASR engine. When the multimodal application (195) is implementedin Java Speech, the operative coupling is effected through the JVM(102), which provides an operating environment for the Java applicationand passes grammars and voice utterances for recognition to the ASRengine. When the multimodal application (195) is implemented in SALT,the operative coupling is effected through the SALT interpreter (103),which provides an operating environment and an interpreter for the X+Vapplication and passes grammars and voice utterances for recognition tothe ASR engine.

The multimodal application (195) in this example, running on amultimodal device (152) that contains its own VoiceXML interpreter (192)and its own speech engine (153) with no network or VOIP connection to aremote voice server containing a remote VoiceXML interpreter or a remotespeech engine, is an example of a so-called ‘thick client architecture,’so-called because all of the functionality for processing voice modeinteractions between a user and the multimodal application—as well asthe functionality for speech recognition—is implemented on themultimodal device itself.

The multimodal browser (196) of FIG. 4 operates generally to carry outspeech enabled media sharing in a multimodal application by parsing oneor more markup documents of a multimodal application (195); identifyingin the one or more markup documents a web resource for display in themultimodal browser (196); loading a web resource sharing grammar thatincludes keywords for modes of resource sharing and keywords for targetsfor receipt of web resources; receiving an utterance matching a keywordfor the web resource, a keyword for a mode of resource sharing and akeyword for a target for receipt of the web resource in the web resourcesharing grammar thereby identifying the web resource, a mode of resourcesharing, and a target for receipt of the web resource; and sending theweb resource to the identified target for the web resource using theidentified mode of resource sharing.

For further explanation, FIG. 5 sets forth a flow chart illustrating anexemplary method of speech enabled media sharing in a multimodalapplication. The method of FIG. 5 is the method implemented with amultimodal application (195) and a multimodal browser (196), a module ofautomated computing machinery operating on a multimodal devicesupporting multiple modes of user interaction. The modes of userinteraction include a voice mode and one or more non-voice modes. Thevoice mode includes accepting speech input from a user, digitizing thespeech, and providing digitized speech to a speech engine. The non-voicemode includes accepting input from a user through physical userinteraction with a user input device for the multimodal device.

The method of FIG. 5 includes parsing (502), by the multimodal browser(196), one or more markup documents of a multimodal application (195).Parsing (502) one or more markup documents of a multimodal application(195) may be carried out by identifying in document order the text,images, headers links, and other objects in the markup documents andrepresenting those objects in a tree-structure for display in thebrowser according a document object model (‘DOM’) for the multimodalbrowser. The DOM provides the specification for how objects in a markupdocument are represented and defines what attributes are associated witheach object, and how the objects and attributes can be manipulated.

The method of FIG. 5 includes identifying (504), by the multimodalbrowser (196), in the one or more markup documents a web resource (506)for display in the multimodal browser (196). A web resource is contentavailable for sharing through a wide area network, such as for example,the Internet. Such a web resource may include a media file in amultimodal application capable of being sent as an email attachment toanother user, a hyperlink to a web page capable of being sent as a textmessage, or any other content that will occur to those of skill in theart.

Identifying, by the multimodal browser, in the one or more markupdocuments a web resource for display in the multimodal browser may becarried out by identifying an element in the multimodal applicationcontaining metadata describing the location of the web resource. In somemultimodal applications, for example, an <object> element may contain adata attribute containing metadata describing the location of a webresource for media sharing according to embodiments of the presentinvention.

Identifying, by the multimodal browser, in the one or more markupdocuments a web resource for display in the multimodal browser may becarried out by identifying markup designating a hyperlink to a webresource. A ‘hyperlink’ is a reference to a URL which when invokedrequests access to a resource identified by the URL. A ‘hyperlink’ mayinclude links to URLs effected through an anchor elements. An anchorelement is a markup language element that identifies and implements ahyperlink. An exemplary form of an anchor element, here expressed inHTML, is: [0104]<a href=“http://SrvrX/MediaFileY”>Cool Video File</a>

This example anchor element includes a start tag <a>, and end tag </a>,an href attribute that identifies the target of the link as a media filenamed ‘MediaFileY’ on a web server named ‘SrvrX,’ and an anchor. The“anchor” is the display text that is set forth between the start tag andthe end tag. That is, in this example, the anchor is the text “CoolVideo File.” In typical usage, the anchor is displayed in highlighting,underscored, inverse, specially colored, or some other fashion settingit apart from other screen text and identifying it as an availablehyperlink. In addition, the screen display area of the anchor is oftensensitized to user interface operations such as GUI pointer operationssuch as mouse clicks.

Identifying in the one or more markup documents a web resource fordisplay in the multimodal browser may also be carried out by identifyinga file type consistent with a web resource. Often files of a typeconsistent with web resources have a file name extension identifying thefile type. Examples of such file name extensions include *wav, .pdf,.mp3, .pps, .doc, and many others as will occur to those of skill in theart. Alternatively, file types may be identified by metadata associatedwith the file itself.

The method of FIG. 5 includes loading (508), by the multimodal browser(196), a web resource sharing grammar (510) that includes keywords (512)for modes of resource sharing and keywords for targets (514) for receiptof web resources. A mode of resource sharing is a method for datacommunications. Examples of modes of resource sharing include email,text messaging, short message service (‘SMS’), multimedia messageservice (‘MMS’) and so on as will occur those of skill in the art. Assuch, examples of keywords for modes of resource sharing include ‘textmessage,’ ‘email,’ ‘message,’ ‘send a note,’ and many others as willoccur to those of skill in the art.

A target for receipt of the web resource is a data communications modulefor a person or process capable of receiving data communicationsincluding web resources. Such targets include unique phone numbers fortext message receipt, email addresses and so on. Often the keywordsidentifying the target may be owner of the target data communicationsmodule. For example, ‘Joe’ may be used to identify the target emailaddress ‘joe@gmail.com.”

The method of FIG. 5 includes receiving (516), by the multimodal browser(196), an utterance matching a keyword (511) for the web resource, akeyword for a mode of resource sharing (512) and a keyword (514) for atarget for receipt of the web resource (506) in the web resource sharinggrammar (510) thereby identifying the web resource, a mode of resourcesharing, and a target for receipt of the web resource. Receiving (516),by the multimodal browser (196), an utterance matching a keyword (511)for the web resource, a keyword for a mode of resource sharing (512) anda keyword (514) for a target for receipt of the web resource (506) inthe web resource sharing grammar (510) includes accepting speech inputfrom a user, digitizing the speech, and providing digitized speech to aspeech engine for recognition as described above.

The method of FIG. 5 also includes sending (518), by the multimodalbrowser (196), the web resource (506) to the identified target for theweb resource using the identified mode of resource sharing. Sending(518), by the multimodal browser (196), the web resource (506) to theidentified target for the web resource using the identified mode ofresource sharing may be carried out by transmitting the web resource tothe identified target using the identified mode of resource sharing.

Sending the web resource to the identified target for the web resourceusing the identified mode of resource sharing may include sending areference to the web resource. Sending the web resource to theidentified target for the web resource using the identified mode ofresource sharing may include adding web resource as an attachment to thedata communication message and sending the web resource as anattachment.

Those of skill in the art will recognize that when more that one webresource is to be displayed simultaneously when the markup document isrendered in the browser a multimodal browser may not be able toaccurately disambiguate speech instructions to sharing of the correctweb resource as intended by the user. For further explanation,therefore, FIG. 6 sets forth a flow chart illustrating another method ofspeech enabled media sharing in a multimodal application according toembodiments of the present invention. The method of FIG. 6 is similar tothe method of FIG. 5 in that the method of FIG. 6 includes parsing(502), by the multimodal browser (196), one or more markup documents ofa multimodal application (195); identifying (504), by the multimodalbrowser (196), in the one or more markup documents a web resource (506)for display in the multimodal browser (196); loading (508), by themultimodal browser (196), a web resource sharing grammar (510) thatincludes keywords (512) for modes of resource sharing and keywords fortargets (514) for receipt of web resources; receiving (516), by themultimodal browser (196), an utterance matching a keyword (512) for amode of resource sharing and a keyword (514) for a target for receipt ofthe web resource (506) in the web resource sharing grammar (510) therebyidentifying a mode of resource sharing and a target for receipt of theweb resource; and sending (518), by the multimodal browser (196), theweb resource (506) to the identified target for the web resource usingthe identified mode of resource sharing.

The method of FIG. 6 differs from the method of FIG. 5 in that in themethod of FIG. 6 identifying (504), by the multimodal browser (196), inthe one or more markup documents a web resource (506) for display in themultimodal browser (196) includes identifying (520) more than one webresource for simultaneous display in the multimodal browser andproviding (522), for each web resource for simultaneous display in themultimodal browser, a unique visual designation. Identifying (520) morethan one web resource for simultaneous display in the multimodal browsertypically includes identifying more that one web resource that are to bedisplayed simultaneously when the markup document is rendered in thebrowser. Without providing some action for disambiguating thesimultaneously displayed web resources, a multimodal browser may not beable to accurately accept speech to enable the sharing of the correctweb resource as intended by the user. The method of FIG. 6 thereforeincludes providing (522), for each web resource for simultaneous displayin the multimodal browser, a unique visual designation may be carriedout by dynamically creating objects for rendering unique visualdesignations. Such unique visual designations may be numerals renderednext to each displayed web resource, characters rendered next to eachdisplayed web resource, symbols rendered next to each displayed webresource and many others as will occur to those of skill in the art. Agrammar that includes keywords for the rendered unique visualdesignations is typically loaded such that the user is now empowered

In other embodiments of the present invention, a unique visualdesignation is not rendered next to each displayed resource. For furtherexplanation, FIG. 7 sets forth a flow chart illustrating another methodof speech enabled media sharing in a multimodal application according toembodiments of the present invention. The method of FIG. 7 is similar tothe method of FIG. 5 in that the method of FIG. 7 includes parsing(502), by the multimodal browser (196), one or more markup documents ofa multimodal application (195); identifying (504), by the multimodalbrowser (196), in the one or more markup documents a web resource (506)for display in the multimodal browser (196); loading (508), by themultimodal browser (196), a web resource sharing grammar (510) thatincludes keywords (512) for modes of resource sharing and keywords fortargets (514) for receipt of web resources; receiving (516), by themultimodal browser (196), an utterance matching a keyword (512) for amode of resource sharing and a keyword (514) for a target for receipt ofthe web resource (506) in the web resource sharing grammar (510) therebyidentifying a mode of resource sharing and a target for receipt of theweb resource; and sending (518), by the multimodal browser (196), theweb resource (506) to the identified target for the web resource usingthe identified mode of resource sharing.

The method of FIG. 7 differs from the method of FIG. 5 in that in themethod of FIG. 7 identifying (504), by the multimodal browser (196), inthe one or more markup documents a web resource (506) for display in themultimodal browser (196) includes identifying (520) more than one webresource for simultaneous display in the multimodal browser; identifying(524) metadata associated with each web resource for simultaneousdisplay in the multimodal browser; and loading (526) a disambiguatinggrammar including keywords selected in dependence upon the metadataassociated with each web resource.

Identifying (520) more than one web resource for simultaneous display inthe multimodal browser and identifying (524) metadata associated witheach web resource for simultaneous display in the multimodal browser.Metadata is data about data. As such, metadata associated with the webresource may be used to dynamically generate keywords describing thesame web resource described by the metadata. Such metadata may includedesignations of file types, descriptions of the contents of the webresource and many others as will occur to those of skill in the art.

Loading (526) a disambiguating grammar including keywords selected independence upon the metadata associated with each web resource.Disambiguating grammars include keywords dynamically selected orgenerated in dependence upon the identified metadata. A user may now beempowered to utter those keywords to disambiguate the simultaneouslydisplayed web resources and identify the correct web resource for speechenabled media sharing.

For further explanation, consider the markup, at the end of thedescription, representing a segment of a multimodal applicationillustrating an example of speech enabled media sharing according toembodiments of the present invention.

The exemplary markup herein contains schematic X+V pseudocodedemonstrating an example of speech enabled media sharing according toembodiments of the present invention. When the document above is loadedthe DOM is created and Javascript executed in document order. The firstelement in the header is style text controlling the presentation ofvisual cues used to help prompt the user from the spoken dialog. Next,the <script> element is executed, declaring several functions used bythe voice dialogs for sharing web resources found on the page.

After the scripts are the VoiceXML forms that are used to implement amultimodal dialog for speech enabled media sharing. The last elements inthe header section are xml event listeners for the page load event thatfire handlers that identify in the DOM web resources in the markupdocument and start a VoiceXML dialog that enables sharing media throughspoken speech.

The exemplary X+V application above is single file that could have beenauthored statically. However, its structure is such that a serverprocess could inject the elements of the header into an existingapplication page that wasn't originally authored with this capability inmind. The only dependence on the legacy page would be to parse the valuefor the id of the body tag in order to bind the <listener> elements.

The first page load event handler, “getMedia”, searches the page for webresources and stores their DOM node in a variable. The next page loadevent listener launches “vform1.” This VoiceXML form enables a grammarwhich will match utterances such as “Bill, check this out!” or “Post toMySpace.” When an utterance is matched, the filled element handles theresults. If there is only one web resource object on the page, the DOMnode containing the web resource is serialized to text and “shared” byexecuting the Javascript function “shareWebResource.”

The sharing of web resources can be accomplished in a number of wayswell known in the mobile industry. Email, SMS, and HTTP and otherapplication level network protocols are available in the software stackvia native APIs, through Java libraries, etc, and can be exposed asJavaScript objects in the DOM.

If there is more than one web resource on the page then the applicationmust resolve the user's choice. In this case, the <filled> element in“vform1” first executes a function that uses Dynamic HTML to insertvisual prompt elements in the DOM. These are the highlighted numeralsshown on the page displayed in the multimodal browser. These elementsare only inserted after the user indicates that he wants to share webresources and the application determines that there is more than one webresource object on the page. Next, the VoiceXML dialog transitions to anew form that prompts the user to select from among the web resources onthe page. It enables a grammar that will match utterances like “emailnumber 2” or “one”. This is an exemplary scheme based on the ordinalproduced by crawling the DOM tree. Alternatively, grammars maydynamically be loaded in dependent upon metadata found in the DOM nodeso that the grammar could match the title of an object on the page, theweb resource object, and so on.

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention are described largely inthe context of a fully functional computer system for speech enabledmedia sharing in a multimodal application. Readers of skill in the artwill recognize, however, that the present invention also may be embodiedin a computer program product disposed on computer-readable signalbearing media for use with any suitable data processing system. Suchsignal bearing media may be transmission media or recordable media formachine-readable information, including magnetic media, optical media,or other suitable media. Examples of recordable media include magneticdisks in hard drives or diskettes, compact disks for optical drives,magnetic tape, and others as will occur to those of skill in the art.Examples of transmission media include telephone networks for voicecommunications and digital data communications networks such as, forexample, Ethernets™ and networks that communicate with the InternetProtocol and the World Wide Web. Persons skilled in the art willimmediately recognize that any computer system having suitableprogramming means will be capable of executing the steps of the methodof the invention as embodied in a program product. Persons skilled inthe art will recognize immediately that, although some of the exemplaryembodiments described in this specification are oriented to softwareinstalled and executing on computer hardware, nevertheless, alternativeembodiments implemented as firmware or as hardware are well within thescope of the present invention.

It will be understood from the foregoing description that modificationsand changes may be made in various embodiments of the present inventionwithout departing from its true spirit. The descriptions in thisspecification are for purposes of illustration only and are not to beconstrued in a limiting sense. The scope of the present invention islimited only by the language of the following claims.

 <?xml version=“1.0”?>  <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//VoiceXML Forum//DTDXHTML+Voice 1.2//EN”“http://www.voicexml.org/specs/multimodal/x+v/12/dtd/xhtml+voice12.dtd”> <html xmlns=http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml     xmlns:vxml=http://www.w3.org/2001/vxml    xmlns:ev=http://www.w3.org/2001/xml-events    xmlns:xv=“http://www.voicexml.org/2002/xhtml+voice”    xml:lang=“en-US”> <head>   <title>Speech Enabled MediaSharingr</title>   <!--Style for the highlight elements -->   <styletype=“text/css”>   b.xvtag   {    background-color: yellow;   font-size: x-small;    font-weight: 100;   }   </style>   <scripttype=“text/javascript”>   function shareWebResource(method, name, text)  {   // This function uses the devices address book and communications  // methods such as sms, email, http, etc to send the serialized web  // resource node to the recipient.    if (method == “text”)    // sendsms    if (method = “email”)    // send email    if (method = “post”)   // post message to social networking website ...   }   functionserializeNode(element)   {    // This function serializes a DOM elementto a text variable   }   function getWeb resourceNodes(parent, list)   {   // This function crawls the DOM searching for nodes that    //contain web resources, for example the <a> and <object> elements    if(parent.childNodes)     for (var i =0; i < parent.childNodes.length;i++)     {     var node = parent.childNodes[i];     if (node.nodeName ==“a” ∥ node.nodeName == “object”)     list.push(node);     // Recurse forthis nodes children    getWebResourceNodes(node, list);   }  }  functionhighLightWebResourceElements(objects)  {  // This function iteratesthrough the array of web resource objects and high-  // lights them withan ordinal number to enable the user to make a selection.  varobjectNumber = 1;  for (var i = 0; x < objects.length; i++)  {  varelement = objects[i];  var boldElem = document.createElement( “b” ); var textNode = document.createTextNode( objectNumber++ ); boldElem.appendChild( textNode );  boldElem.setAttribute( “class”,“xvtag”);  boldElem.setAttribute( “style”, “position:absolute;top:” + getAbsoluteTop(element) +  “;left:” + getAbsoluteLeft(element) ); element.parentNode.insertBefore( boldElem, element ); x++;  }  }  varwebresourceNodes = new array;  var numObjects = webresourceNodes.length; var webresourceText = null; var position = 0;  <scriptid=“getWebResource” type=“text/javascript” declare=“declare”> getWebResourceNodes(document, WebResourceNodes);  </script> <vxml:formid=“vforml”>  <vxml:field name=“shareWebResource”>  <!-- The grammar forsharing the web resource includes a name rule built from the userscontact list or social networks. --> <vxml:grammar>  <![CDATA[  #JSGFVI.0; grammar share-web resource; public <share-web resource> = <name>{$choiceName = $name; }  <question> {$choiceMethod = “text”} | <method>{$choiceMethod = $method} <name> {$choiceName = $name;};  <question> =(Have you seen this? | Have you heard this? | Check this out!){$messageText=$question}; <method> = email|text|post; <name> = CiprianAgapi | Bill Bodin | Chris Cross | Twitter | MySpace; ]]> </vxml:grammar>  <vxml:filled>  <vxml:if expr=“numObjects == 1”> <!--Serialize the choice to the message text --> <vxml:assignname=“webResourceText” expr=“serializeNode(WebResourceNodes[0])”/>  <!--Execute the Javascript function to share the web resource --><vxml:assign name=“temp” expr=“shareWebresource(choiceMethod,choiceName, messageText)”/>  <vxml:elseif expr=“numObjects > 1”/>  <!--Highlight the web resource objects on the page --> <vxml:assignname=“temp” expr=“highLightWebResourceElements(allObjects)”/> <!--Transition to the dialog to select a web resource object from the page--> <vxml:goto next=“#selectWEbResource”/> </vxml:if>  </vxml:filled></vxml:field>  </vxml:form> <vxml:form id=“selectWebResource”><vxml:field name=“selection”>  <vxml:prompt>Which object do you want tosend? </vxml:prompt> <vxml:grammar> <![CDATA[ #JSGF VI.0; grammarselection; public <selection> = [Send | select | text | email][number]<number>  {$selection = $number − 1;} ]]> </vxml:grammar> <vxml:filled> <!-- Serialize the choice to the message text -->  <vxml:assignname=“webResourceText”expr=“serializeNode(WebResourceNodes[selection])”/> <!-- Execute theJavascript function to share the web resource --> <vxml:assignname=“temp” expr=“shareWebResource(choiceMethod, choiceName,messageText, WebResourceText)”/>  </vxml:filled>  </vxml:field> </vxml:form>  <!-- Listeners to fire handlers to get the web resourceobjects and start the voice dialog after the document is loaded --> <listener event=“load” observer=“main” target=“main”handler=“#getWebResource”/>  <listener event=“load” observer=“main”target=“main” handler=“#vform1”/> </head>  <body id=“main”>  <objectwidth=“425” height=“355”>  <param name=“movie” value=“http://www.you-tube.com/v/yysnkY4WHyM&hl=en&rel=0”></param >  <param name=“wmode”value=“transparent”></param>  <embedsrc=“http://www.youtube.com/v/yysnkY4WHyM&hl=en&rel=0”type=“application/x-shockwave-flash” wmode=“transparent” width=“425”height=“355”> </embed> </object> <ahref=“http://podcastdownload.npr.org/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/151/510005/90194032/KQED_90194032.mp3?dl= 1”><imgsrc=“downloadmp3_2.gif” alt=“Download MP3” height=“22” width=“108”></a></body>  </html>

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of speech enabled media sharing in a multimodal application, the method implemented with the multimodal application and a multimodal browser, a module of automated computing machinery operating on a multimodal device supporting multiple modes of user interaction, the modes of user interaction including a voice mode and one or more non-voice modes, wherein the voice mode includes accepting speech input from a user, digitizing the speech, and providing digitized speech to a speech engine, and wherein the non-voice mode includes accepting input from a user through physical user interaction with a user input device for the multimodal device; the method comprising: parsing, by the multimodal browser, one or more markup documents of a multimodal application; identifying, by the multimodal browser, in the one or more markup documents web resources for display in the multimodal browser; identifying metadata associated with each of the web resources identified in the one or more markup documents for simultaneous display in the multimodal browser; loading a disambiguating grammar including keywords selected in dependence upon the metadata associated with each of the web resources; loading, by the multimodal browser, a web resource sharing grammar that includes keywords for modes of resource sharing and keywords for targets for receipt of web resources; receiving, by the multimodal browser, a plurality of utterances matching keywords of the disambiguating grammar for at least two of the web resources, a keyword for a mode of resource sharing and a keyword for a target for receipt of the at least two of the web resources; and sending, by the multimodal browser, the web resources to the identified target for the web resources using the identified mode of resource sharing.
 2. The method of claim 1 further comprising: parsing, by the multimodal browser, a second set of one or more markup documents; identifying, in the second set of markup documents, a second plurality of web resources for simultaneous display in the multimodal browser; providing, for each of the second plurality of web resources identified in the second set of markup documents for simultaneous display in the multimodal browser, a unique visual designation; receiving, by the multimodal browser, a second plurality of utterances matching keywords for the unique visual designations of at least two of the second plurality of web resources identified in the second set of markup documents, a keyword for a mode of resource sharing and a keyword for a target for receipt of the at least two of the plurality of web resources identified in the second set of markup documents; and sending, by the multimodal browser, the at least two of the plurality of web resources identified in the second set of markup documents to the identified target using the identified mode of resource sharing.
 3. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying, by the multimodal browser, in the one or more markup documents the web resources for display in the multimodal browser further comprises identifying, for at least one of the web resources, an element in the multimodal application containing metadata describing the location of the web resource.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying, by the multimodal browser, in the one or more markup documents the web resources for display in the multimodal browser further comprises identifying, for at least one of the web resources, markup designating a hyperlink to web resource.
 5. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying, by the multimodal browser, in the one or more markup documents the web resources for display in the multimodal browser further comprises identifying, for at least one of the web resources, a file type consistent with a web resource.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein sending, by the multimodal browser, the web resources to the identified target for the web resources using the identified mode of resource sharing further comprises sending, for each of the web resources, a reference to the web resource.
 7. An apparatus of speech enabled media sharing in a multimodal application, the apparatus including a multimodal application and a multimodal browser, a module of automated computing machinery operating on a multimodal device supporting multiple modes of user interaction, the modes of user interaction including a voice mode and one or more non-voice modes, wherein the voice mode includes accepting speech input from a user, digitizing the speech, and providing digitized speech to a speech engine, and wherein the non-voice mode includes accepting input from a user through physical user interaction with a user input device for the multimodal device; the apparatus comprising computer program instructions for parsing, by the multimodal browser, one or more markup documents of a multimodal application; identifying, by the multimodal browser, in the one or more markup documents a web resource for display in the multimodal browser; identifying metadata associated with each of the web resources identified in the one or more markup documents for simultaneous display in the multimodal browser; loading a disambiguating grammar including keywords selected in dependence upon the metadata associated with each of the web resources; loading, by the multimodal browser, a web resource sharing grammar that includes keywords for modes of resource sharing and keywords for targets for receipt of web resources; receiving, by the multimodal browser, a plurality of utterances matching keywords of the disambiguating grammar for at least two of the web resources, a keyword for a mode of resource sharing and a keyword for a target for receipt of the at least two of the web resources; and sending, by the multimodal browser, the web resources to the identified target for the web resources using the identified mode of resource sharing.
 8. The apparatus of claim 7 further comprising computer program instructions: parsing, by the multimodal browser, a second set of one or more markup documents; identifying, in the second set of markup documents, a second plurality of web resources for simultaneous display in the multimodal browser; providing, for each of the second plurality of web resources identified in the second set of markup documents for simultaneous display in the multimodal browser, a unique visual designation; receiving, by the multimodal browser, a second plurality of utterances matching keywords for the unique visual designations of at least two of the second plurality of web resources identified in the second set of markup documents, a keyword for a mode of resource sharing and a keyword for a target for receipt of the at least two of the plurality of web resources identified in the second set of markup documents; and sending, by the multimodal browser, the at least two of the plurality of web resources identified in the second set of markup documents to the identified target using the identified mode of resource sharing.
 9. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein computer program instructions identifying, by the multimodal browser, in the one or more markup documents the web resources for display in the multimodal browser further comprises identifying, for at least one of the web resources, an element in the multimodal application containing metadata describing the location of the web resource.
 10. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein computer program instructions for identifying, by the multimodal browser, in the one or more markup documents the web resources for display in the multimodal browser further comprises identifying, for at least one of the web resources, markup designating a hyperlink to the web resource.
 11. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein computer program instructions for identifying, by the multimodal browser, in the one or more markup documents the web resources for display in the multimodal browser further comprises identifying, for at least one of the web resources, a file type consistent with a web resource.
 12. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein computer program instructions for sending, by the multimodal browser, the web resources to the identified target for the web resources using the identified mode of resource sharing further comprises sending, for each of the web resources, a reference to the web resource.
 13. A computer program product of speech enabled media sharing in a multimodal application, computer program product comprising computer program instructions stored on a non-transitory machine-readable medium, the computer program instructions instructing a processor to perform: for: parsing, by the multimodal browser, one or more markup documents of a multimodal application; identifying, by the multimodal browser, in the one or more markup documents a web resource for display in the multimodal browser; identifying metadata associated with each of the web resources identified in the one or more markup documents for simultaneous display in the multimodal browser; loading a disambiguating grammar including keywords selected in dependence upon the metadata associated with each of the web resources; loading, by the multimodal browser, a web resource sharing grammar that includes keywords for modes of resource sharing and keywords for targets for receipt of web resources; receiving, by the multimodal browser, a plurality of utterances matching keywords of the disambiguating grammar for at least two of the web resources, a keyword for a mode of resource sharing and a keyword for a target for receipt of the at least two of the web resources; and sending, by the multimodal browser, the web resources to the identified target for the web resources using the identified mode of resource sharing.
 14. The computer program product of claim 13 further comprising computer program instructions to perform: parsing, by the multimodal browser, a second set of one or more markup documents; identifying, in the second set of markup documents, a second plurality of web resources for simultaneous display in the multimodal browser; providing, for each of the second plurality of web resources identified in the second set of markup documents for simultaneous display in the multimodal browser, a unique visual designation; receiving, by the multimodal browser, a second plurality of utterances matching keywords for the unique visual designations of at least two of the second plurality of web resources identified in the second set of markup documents, a keyword for a mode of resource sharing and a keyword for a target for receipt of the at least two of the plurality of web resources identified in the second set of markup documents; and sending, by the multimodal browser, the at least two of the plurality of web resources identified in the second set of markup documents to the identified target using the identified mode of resource sharing.
 15. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein computer program instructions to perform identifying, by the multimodal browser, in the one or more markup documents the web resources for display in the multimodal browser further comprises identifying, for a least one of the web resources, markup designating a hyperlink to the web resource.
 16. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein computer program instructions to perform identifying, by the multimodal browser, in the one or more markup documents the web resources for display in the multimodal browser further comprises identifying, for at least one of the web resources, a file type consistent with a web resource.
 17. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein computer program instructions to perform sending, by the multimodal browser, the web resources to the identified target for the web resources using the identified mode of resource sharing further comprises sending, for each of the web resources, a reference to the web resource. 